As the green construction grows, so do the legal issues surrounding it, Caryn Tamber reports.

A lawyer’s claim that his co-counsel breached a case-referral agreement by not consulting with him before settlement has been thrown out by the Court of Special Appeals.

In Breaking News, the intermediate court finds that the State Board of Physicians properly revoked the license of a doctor who entered an Alford plea to second-degree assault; Firms plan to scale back summer programs; and Attorney General Douglas Gansler says that ‘instant racing’ machines are still illegal.

Read about how an ER doctor was found not liable for failing to diagnosis a fatal heart condition in Verdicts & Settlements.

Henry J. Wegrocki discusses his first vanity license plate – SUE ‘EM - in My First.

Stay up-to-date with our Legal Briefs and Law Digest, with cases from the Maryland Court of Appeals, U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, U.S. District Court, Maryland and Office of Administrative Hearings.

Here’s a sentence from a press release issued by Baltimore County on Friday announcing that crime in the county was down in 2008 compared to 2007:

Most impressively, of the eight serious crime categories, seven have seen a decrease. Rape has decreased by 2 percent, robbery by 3.4 percent, aggravated assault by 10.7 percent, burglary by 9.8 percent, motor vehicle theft by 13.6 percent, and arson by 4.3 percent.

The release noted in an earlier paragraph homicide was down 16.7 percent, for those keeping count. But that still leaves one category that saw an increase and is not mentioned anywhere in the release.

According to police department data, that category is theft, which increased 5.7 percent between 2007 and 2008. Leading the surge is the theft of precious metals, specifically copper and catalytic converters, police spokesman Bill Toohey said. With copper, thieves typically enter homes under construction and take wiring; with catalytic converters, they swipe them right from cars. Catalytic converter thefts in the county, in fact, have increased from 50 in 2006 to 459 last year, Toohey said.

In both instances, the stolen goods are sold to scrap metal dealers, said Toohey. The Maryland Senate passed a bill last month that would require junk dealers and scrap metal processors to keep more detailed records of who they are buying goods from to help police catch the theives, but the companion bill in the House of Delegates did not make it out of committee.

Click here for the county’s crime summary. Overall, crime decreased 1.2 percent in 2008 compared to 2007.

Hello, all. Here are a few links to start your week:

•  Will Obama’s nominee to head the DOJ’s civil rights division, Maryland labor secretary Tom Perez, face a tough confirmation fight?
• Maryland’s 500 public defenders handle 200,000 cases a year, putting them in the company of overtaxed PDs all over the country. HT: Maryland Gangs.
• Investigative Voice conducted a fascinating interview with a private investigator who got to know three-time murderer Kevin Johns, who killed himself in prison last month. HT: Baltimore Crime.
•  Why do so many high-profile killings occur in April? My own suspicion is that at least some of the murders happen because the killers are consciously piggy-backing on those who have come before them. I’ve also heard the theory that Hitler’s birthday on April 20 factored into a couple of these killings. HT: Al’s Morning Meeting.
• Should law firms eliminate the spacious corner office in favor of one-size-fit-all offices?
• Thousands of rape kits sit untested in Los Angeles.